Pretty Little Liars: Season 2 Cast Photos

The girls look gorgeous, I love all the muted pastels. What a stark contrast to all the black in the S1 promos!
- Kelli at Gossip Freak

'Pretty Little Liars' Recap: Episode 9, "The Perfect Storm"

By Karen Sanders
The Perfect Storm begins with Hanna, Aria and Spencer studying for the SATs at Spencer's house. Emily, however, is strangely absent. While her friends are busy learning long words, Emily arrives at home caked in mud and dripping wet from the approaching storm. After the way the previous episode ended - with Ali's memorial being smashed up - Emily's appearance makes us wonder exactly what she had been up to.
With the storm brewing over Rosewood, the high school kids are in school waiting to take their exam. With the storm making it's way into town though, many students can't make it in and those who do later become locked in for their own safety.
Pretty Little Liars - Emily's Story
In the midst of the exam and storm chaos, Detective Wilden is back and smarmy as ever. Emily is his target again this week, and him noticing her muddy shoes does not help. He also informs her that Toby was spotted at a gas station near to Ali's memorial and is still convinced that Emily knows where he is.
When the Pretty Little Liars are questioned on their whereabouts at the time of Ali's memorial bashing, Emily lies and says she was studying at Spencer's. Her friends cover for her but when Wilden leaves, they ask where she really was. Emily makes up a story and gets snappy when they question her further. At the same time, she receives a text message from A about Great Expectations. Leaving the other girls surprised by her mood, Emily heads into the library in search of the book. She locates Great Expectations and finds a letter inside. A letter she wrote to Ali about them kissing. A flashback shows Ali giving Emily a serious come-on while reading Great Expectations and the two kiss. However, a later flashback shows Ali flirting with Emily again and when Emily makes a move, Ali flips out and tells her she is just using Emily as kissing practice for when she kisses boys. Those incidences were the reason Emily wrote the letter. To vent her frustration and anger over being tormented.
While Emily is in the library, the storm outside is growing wilder. The lights go out and she panics when a book falls off the shelf. She goes to investigate and finds nothing but when she gets back to her spot both her bag and the letter have gone. Freaked out, she heads down to the locker room, where everyone else is now sheltering. She is there for just a few minutes when Wilden shows up and says he has found something that belongs to her.
Emily follows his back to the library and her friends follow too, anxious to find out what has been happening. Wilden shows Emily that he has located her bag and the letter, and demands she tells her friends all about the kissing and how she wanted revenge on Ali for messing her around. He also shows a photo he received of Emily at the trashed memorial. The other Pretty Little Liars are all stunned at this news. They are further shocked to find that Emily has stowed the little statues that were on Ali's bird bath thing at the memorial in her bag. Emily begins to cry and explains that she went to the memorial but it had already been destroyed. She took the statues because they were the only things that weren't broken. Wilden goes on to reveal that Emily wrote the letter to Ali three days before she went missing and just when he is about to deepen his questioning, Spencer's mum walks in and asks what is going on. When the girls tell her, Mrs Hastings tells Wilden in no uncertain terms that questioning minors without an adult present makes anything he discovered inadmissible in court and that his career is over.

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Credit - Karen Sanders @ associated content
Kelli at Gossip Freak

Pretty Little Liars: Telling the Truth with Ashley Benson

Ashley Benson first gained fans with a four-year stint on popular soap Days of Our Lives, but she’s found new celebrity as Hanna Marin on Pretty Little Liars. Once chubby and awkward, the character of Hanna emerged as the “Queen Bee” after former group leader Alison disappeared; only recently has she settled down and become a sensitive voice of reason among her friends. I spoke to Benson about Hanna’s personality changes, her boy drama, and why ABC Family’s dark teen drama is such a success.
TV.com: OK, I have to tell you. Hanna has definitely become my favorite character on Pretty Little Liars. Are you excited about the direction she’s taken?
Ashley Benson: I’m so excited. I’m just really glad that she’s becoming more down to earth. She's really funny now, so that's really fun to play. But yeah, I’m really glad about the direction they’ve taken her. I think that a lot of fans, she’s slowly becoming their girl that they go to. She was so mean and stuck-up, and now she’s a really good friend. She’s funny and she’s sarcastic and it’s really good to see the other side of Hanna now, rather than the stuck-up and snobby side. It’s good. I like it a lot.
So, Spencer’s plagiarizing, Emily’s kissing girls, Aria’s kissing her teacher. What’s going on with Hanna? Does she also have secrets we don’t know about?
They’re not touching a lot on stuff, but I think that in this period of Hanna’s life, she’s just kind of finding out who she is. I mean, she’s already gotten in trouble with the police and now she’s told her friends. She’s gotten in trouble with them quite a few times, from stealing sunglasses to wrecking Sean’s car, which nobody found out about. She’s keeping the affair with her mom and Detective Wilden a secret. In the midseason finale, she gets a little bit more information about A, so things happen in that way to my character. And it ends with a huge cliffhanger, so we’ll see where it goes from there. But she definitely doesn’t have as much darkness as the other girls. I think she’s just struggling with family things, with money. And we’ll see where the writers take it.
Hanna does have her share of boy drama. Do you have a preference for which guy she picks? Are you Team Sean or Team Lucas?
I’m Team Both. I adore both of them. They’re so sweet. I don’t know. I would love to see how the Lucas thing plays out, just because it’s something new and Lucas is not the type of guy that Hanna would go for. But she befriended him because she used to be just like him. They always saw each other, and she knows what it’s like to be in his position. So I think it’s great that she’s kind of opening herself up to people that she wouldn’t necessarily open herself up to. I can’t wait to see what the writers have in store for that, because I don’t know where that’s going to go. But I know that the fans really love that storyline, so we’ll see what happens.
It seems like you’re pretty in the dark when it comes to upcoming storylines. How much advance notice are you given about what’s going to happen next, or do you just find out when you get a script?
We get the scripts two days before we film the episodes. Everything is kept really quiet, just because there’s so much that goes on. But nobody’s really allowed to talk about anything. We usually find out everything when we get the script, and that’s about it. So we’re always on our toes to see what happens next. It’s always really exciting to see what’s going to happen in new episodes.
We’ve seen several flashbacks to the girls as they used to be, including a very different version of Hanna. As an actor, what’s your approach to playing that younger Hanna?
It’s probably my favorite part of Hanna to play, just because she’s so sensitive and so insecure and just so vulnerable. I’ve been there before. I’ve been in her shoes, where she hasn’t been included, and I’ve definitely gone through some friends who have treated me really poorly. It was to the point where I had to get a whole new group of friends that were just like Lucas. So it’s really interesting. But when I’m on set, I really just channel my character and it’s kind of easy for me to drift off and be Hanna, just because I feel for her and I know what it’s like. I’m really passionate about always playing into flashbacks, because there’s a lot that you get to see. You know, how she was treated and what she went through. That’s always really special to play.
Let’s talk about Hanna’s family a bit. I love Laura Leighton, who does a great job as your mom—is Detective Wilden completely out of the picture there? And what about the money situation that you mentioned earlier?
The whole money situation is really a problem because we can’t afford anything. I mean, Hanna sold her bags to get groceries. So there’s a whole thing there, because she also has to keep up her image, and obviously she doesn’t want people knowing that they’re broke and have no money and are about to go bankrupt. And Detective Wilden—he’s definitely still in the picture, but Bryce [Johnson] just got on another TV show, so he’s gonna come back when he can. But I love that storyline and I hope that it continues. He is going to be in the next two episodes. He’s great; I love working with him. And I hope that their storyline continues, because it’s so juicy. I love it, I love it.
The fanbase for Pretty Little Liars has really exploded since it premiered. What do you think accounts for the show’s success?
I just think the show is so much fun. There’s so much gossip and mystery. It’s great that the show ends with a cliffhanger, because then it attracts the audience to watch it again. It’s just fun. Also, the four girls are so relatable that I think every teenage girl can kind of go into their shoes. They may be dealing with some of the issues that we’re dealing with on the show. You know, it touches a lot of situations, which I love. I think that’s a big part of it. I get girls that come up to me all the time and they’re like, “I’ve been where you’ve been, and I feel like I’m Hanna.” So it’s really cool. I feel like a lot of girls are really into the show because they can relate to us so much. It’s really special that we’re able to do that.
Well, I know there’s a lot you still don’t know—and a lot you can’t tell me. But I have to ask: Do you know who A is?
In the midseason finale, I gather more information on who it could be, and you’re left with a humongous cliffhanger. So I can’t wait for everyone to see it, because it’s absolutely insane. But I definitely get more information about who it could be, and I’m kind of left with that. We’ll see what direction they take it in, but it’s definitely going to be an amazing midseason finale. Everybody’s going to be shocked.

Credit - Louis Peitzman @ tvnow.com
Kelli at Gossip Freak

Pretty Little Liars: Will Hanna and Lucas's Relationship Go from Friendly to Flirty?

With only two episodes left before ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars (Tuesday 8/7c) goes on hiatus, star Ashley Benson tells TVGuide.com that her character Hanna is beginning to care less about who her friends want her to be. Which could be good news for Lucas, the nerdy boy next store who isn't likely to pass the friend test. Of course, she also has other problems, starting with messages she and her friends are getting from the mysterious "A."
TVGuide.com: What have we yet to learn about Hanna?
Ashley Benson: She's really coming into her own and has changed a lot personality-wise. She's figuring out who she wants to be, and she's not going by what everyone else expects her to be. It's really fun to watch her develop as a person.
TVGuide.com: How is she going to handle the struggle between wanting to be the popular girl with the hot boyfriend and her budding relationship with Lucas, a nerd?
Benson: Honestly, I don't think she's really going to care that much. As the show goes on she's more free-spirited about it and she's going to do what she wants. If she likes Lucas, she's going to take that risk because it's not that big of a deal to her anymore to be popular. She has so much going on in her life right now that she needs support and a friend there that she can talk to besides the girls. She was in Lucas' position awhile back, she knows what it's like to feel left out and made fun of, so they have a lot in common and they're really great for each other. They make each other laugh and they're really comfortable. It's really cute because he's so scared of her, but she's telling him she's just like him and there's no difference between them. I can't wait to see how that relationship goes and if they get together.
TVGuide.com: Is that why Hanna is so understanding of Emily and Maya's relationship?
Benson: Yeah. Hanna has been through a lot in her life and she has always been judged. It's great that Hanna is being really supportive of Emily because she should. There isn't a problem with Emily liking a girl and if Hanna's the only one who knows, she has to be supportive.
TVGuide.com: Which of the four girls do you most relate to?
Benson: I really relate to my character. I know what it's like to be left out ... I certainly went through a period of time where I got made fun of and people were so mean to me, so I can really relate to that. I don't so much relate to the other girls, but I love Aria's style on the show. The audience can really pick a girl that struggles with the same struggles they have
TVGuide.com: As you were filming, did you constantly change your mind about who A was?
Benson: Definitely. There are so many people it can be so I don't know where the writers are going to go with it. Everybody's got an eerie kind of vibe to them. There are a lot of characters being introduced in the last two episodes so they're going to be in the next half of the season so there are so many ways it can go.

Credit - by Robyn Ross @ TVguide.com
Kelli at Gossip Freak

'Pretty Little Liars' Ashley Benson: 'A huge secret gets out' in 'The Perfect Storm'

"Pretty Little Liars" penultimate episode, "The Perfect Storm," traps everyone at school. Ashley Benson tells Zap2it that it will not end well for one of the girls.
"A huge secret gets out for one of the main girls," says Benson. "We all have to take our SATs, so everybody's stuck at school. There's certain people that come into the school where we're all stuck. Detective Wilden, anytime he's around ... there's just a lot of things that happen that shouldn't ... It kind of destroys somebody."
Detective Wilden (Bryce Johnson) isn't the only problem in Hanna's life, though. She has a budding love triangle with her boyfriend Sean (Chuck Hittinger) and friend Lucas (Brendan Robinson).
"Right now [Hanna and Lucas are] trying their friendship. They know what it was like to be the outcasts ... she saw what Alison did to him, she's a huge support system for him," Benson explains. "I know a lot of the fans want us to become boyfriend/girlfriend. I have no idea what the writers are going to do, but Brendan is really great, so we'll see what happens."
When pressed to declare if Hanna actually has feelings for Lucas as more than a friend, Benson admits, "I think she's starting to have feelings for him, but she's just scared to let herself because of who he is. But since Alison's gone, she's a stronger person. She's more down-to-earth and not as stuck up as she was. She stands up to Mona now ... Hanna doesn't really care anymore about her status, she's more real and who she really is."
Benson also teases that there is a big event looming for Hanna in the last two "Pretty Little Liars" episodes before the midseason break.
"We have a lot of new characters that are being introduced in these last couple episodes ... that create problems. In the very last episode, there's a huge thing that happens for my character and it's going to change a lot about my storyline. It's really good."

Credit - zap2it.com
Kelli at Gossip Freak